Children's Home run by Care Afloat Ltd in Lancashire

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home was judged good at the full inspection. At this interim inspection, Ofsted judges that it has sustained effectiveness .

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The child in placement is making positive progress. She has highly complex needs and presents with very challenging behaviours, having experienced a number of placement breakdowns. Staff are building relationships with her to help her to feel secure and wanted, and are being resilient in their response to difficult circumstances. They make it clear that they differentiate her negative behaviours from their positive perception of her as a person. This helps to encourage her self- worth and ability to build trust and attachment with adults who care for her.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The staff team works well with partner agencies and applies guidance in its practice to provide consistent care, which is reducing the number of incidents that take place. Night time was recognised as an extremely difficult time for the child, who would often remain very unsettled until the early hours of the morning. A consistent and predictable bedtime routine is now in place, and the child is now able to settle and sleep. This promotes her health and well-being, and has made this time of the day a more positive experience. Staff use key working to help to develop the child’s understanding of her behaviour, but have not always taken the opportunity in these sessions to address issues such as racist abuse.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff support the child in education, where her attendance has risen to 100% and engagement has improved to 92% since last term. She is engaged in numerous activities, including trampolining, swimming and going to a horse sanctuary. She attends activities after school and this gives her opportunities to be active and develop positive social relationships, and reduces her previous reliance on using the internet as an activity.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Prior to her admission, the staff team had a plan for introductory visits. However, this could not be implemented due to pressure from the previous placement to facilitate an earlier move. There was a missed opportunity to forward the children’s guide to the home to the child to give her some information prior to moving. A placement meeting was held upon her arrival, and the home made concerted efforts to access further professional assessments and information to develop understanding of her complex needs. The young person previously living at the home was involved in meetings to plan her future placement. The home had been successful in reducing her identified risks, but the young person had not engaged consistently in any education offered. Despite her involvement in preparing for the new admission, this young person struggled with the behaviour of the younger child and became threatening towards her. Notice was served on her placement to safeguard the younger child, and she

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

spent the rest of her placement on respite away from the home. Staff say that she maintained positive relationships with them throughout this period and they transported her back to her home area when she moved. However, neither child had a positive experience of arriving at or leaving the home.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The home is working effectively with other agencies to meet the needs of the child currently living at the home. The placing authority’s community care worker has provided additional information to provide greater insight into the child’s history and presentation. Regular consultation with a therapeutic partner agency develops knowledge and understanding within the staff team of pertinent strategies to support her complex needs and understand the trauma that she has experienced. The home has instigated a multi-agency meeting to ensure that there is a clear plan to manage any further incidents of her going missing from the home. Despite requests, the home does not always receive feedback from independent visits after ‘missing’ episodes to ensure that staff have all relevant information to support her ongoing safety. Due to the complexity of the child’s needs, the home currently aims to remain a solo provision.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

There have been circumstances when physical intervention has been required to keep the child and others safe. Records of such incidents require improvement to reflect consistent and accurate details, such as debriefings with the child and staff, as well as the duration of the actual physical intervention as opposed to the duration of the incident, to correlate to the narrative in the record. Improvements are also required to central records to evidence notifications to relevant professional agencies by managers, and to ensure that notifications are made to HMCI.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The home’s registered manager resigned with immediate effect in October 2016. Since that time, the home has been overseen by a manager from another of the provider’s homes, and continues to benefit from an experienced deputy manager to support the staff team. The overseeing manager and deputy recognise that the home needs to recruit a new manager as soon as possible to provide ongoing stability for the staff team, and they have identified areas that require improvement to ensure ongoing high-quality care. This includes appointing suitable team members who understand the need for consistency in practice, as well as improving managerial oversight of records, and ensuring that internal and external monitoring systems are utilised to effect improvements within the home.

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children and young people since the most recent full inspection

The home has met two of the three requirements from the last inspection. Staff have received training to improve their knowledge and skills to meet the needs of each child. The statement of purpose has been revised to reflect the details of all professionals who provide therapy. However, a further requirement was made to ensure that it accurately reflects the conditions under which the home operates and the current circumstances regarding the position of registered manager. The home has not yet fully evidenced that children have a positive experience of arriving at or leaving the home, and this requirement is therefore repeated. The home has met the previous recommendation made with respect to rewarding and celebrating positive behaviour. It also engaged with all agencies to support a young person to access education.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to two children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home is owned and operated by a private company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 26/04/2016 Full Good 23/02/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 28/07/2015 Full Requires improvement 26/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person(s) meets the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

Children should have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14(1)(b) 30/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must: (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided. (Regulation 13(2))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to use external and internal monitoring to improve quality of central recording, including dates of notification to relevant professionals. Managerial monitoring and review should be undertaken on a regular basis. 30/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must: (a) keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it, particularly to identify conditions that apply to the home and any change to the registered manager. (Regulation 16(3)(a) and schedule 1, 1 and 18(c)) 30/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other person without delay if: (e) there is any other incident relating to the child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this is where any incident may compromise the safety of a child, including going missing from the home. 30/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that: (a) within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes: (iv) a description of the measure and its duration.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, these should accurately record the duration of the restraint and not the duration of the incident leading to the use of restraint.

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Requirement Due date

(b) within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered 30/12/2016 person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) (i) has spoken to the user about the measure; and (ii) has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and (c) within five days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3))

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure that children are supported to develop understanding and empathy, and poor behaviour challenged and discussed. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.11) This is in particular relation to addressing racist and abusive language in key- working sessions.  Ensure that the home works in close partnership with all those who play a role in protecting and caring for the child and escalate concerns. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.3)

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Recommendations

This is in particular relation to obtaining information from the local authority following a ‘missing’ episode which may assist the home to protect the child.

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What the inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspection we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the Inspection of children’s homes: framework for inspection.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children’s home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children’s home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This inspection focused on the effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. the guidance, ‘Raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted’s website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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